Wednesday

Equality Day, which falls on Aug. 26, celebrates the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920

When it comes to passage of the 19th Amendment, Patricia Ross is very clear about the process.

"Women weren't actually given the vote — women won the vote," she said.

Ross, president of the Florida AAUW, spoke during the American Association of University Women Flagler chapter's Equality Day celebration at the Flagler County Public Library and called the fight for women's suffrage "the first great civil rights movement of the 20th century."

Equality Day, which falls on Aug. 26, celebrates the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. But the movement to gain votes for women began much earlier, Ross said.

Highlighting the work and words of several women prominent in the suffrage movement, from Susan B. Anthony to Sojourner Truth, Ross told the story of the tireless efforts of these and other women and men who laid the groundwork for the ultimate passage of the constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Ross said the effort was waged across the country at the state and local levels, often under the threat of retribution.

"The state electoral campaigns were not for the faint-hearted," she said. "The organizers and field workers were exceptional women who were able to meet the challenges."

The difficulties suffragists faced were not limited to resistance from a male-dominated society, but could also be geographical and logistical, Ross said.

"The organizers often found that just getting where they needed to be was an adventure," she said. "This was not an easily won right."

Still, organizers and volunteers criss-crossed the country, spreading the word of votes for women despite the many obstacles.

"That is part of what we remember and celebrate today," Ross said.

Ross said part of the history of the suffragists' efforts made another sort of history. A public demonstration for women's suffrage outside the White House of President Woodrow Wilson "was the first time the White House had been picketed," Ross said.

Kimble Medley, publicity chair for the Flagler AAUW, also spoke during the Equality Day event, recounting the story of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in Tennessee.

Medley said state legislators delayed taking a vote on the constitutional amendment as long as they could. A young 24-year-old legislator was admonished by his mother in a letter to support the amendment when it came up for a vote.

Assuming the measure would not pass, Medley said when the young man voted in favor of women's suffrage, "I'm sure all of his colleagues, their jaws hit the floor."

Medley said in the end the Tennessee Legislature ratified the amendment by one vote.